


Freezer Burn

by savvysass



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Sick!Pidge, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-24 04:07:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13803087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savvysass/pseuds/savvysass
Summary: Pidge gets frozen then burns up oops





	Freezer Burn

“Is she out yet? I feel like she should have been out by now.” Hunk asked, worrying his lip between his teeth as he eyed the large ice planet on the monitor.

“She still has 20 doboshes until the gap closes, so she should be fine.” Shiro said calmly, but he’s sure no one missed the tense edge to his voice.

They were at a desolate ice planet that was positioned almost identically to the Blade of Marmora base- trapped between two immovable objects that only had an opening every few doboshes. They had seen an atomic abnormality in the planet’s decay and debris, and Pidge- a true green paladin- had insisted they check it out in case it spread. The team knew that communications would be cut off, just like with the Blade, but Pidge had insisted that they needed a sample from the planet’s surface so they could find a way to cure it in case it made its way to other planets in the system. 

Of course, she wanted to collect the sample herself since the opening was too small for Blue, and of course she had insisted to go alone since it “was a simple mission” and she “didn’t need anyone contaminating her research”.

That was over half a varga ago, and she still wasn’t breaching the surface.

Everyone was starting to get antsy, and Shiro was starting to feel it as well.

Shiro worried about everyone on the team, that was for sure, but Pidge was different. Pidge was so young, younger than all of them. If he was being honest, he wasn’t exactly sure how old she was, Lance claiming she had to be 16 to get into the Garrison, but he remembered Commander Holt talk about how his daughter was in middle school, so Shiro had a feeling she might have lied. Either way, Pidge was way too young to be in this war, even more so than the rest of them, and he always had a soft spot in his heart for children, especially those who his mentor Commander Holt loved so much. He supposed he worried about her because Sam wasn’t there to do it at the moment.

Ten more doboshes past before an alarm began to blare through the bridge.

“Oh quiznak!” Coran cried, frantically pushing buttons and pulling up screens.

“What? What’s wrong?!” Shiro shouted over the alarm, his eyes alert as he ran to Coran’s control panel.

“The gap is closing!”

“What?!” Lance screamed, lunging to his feet and closer to the panel. “I thought she had ten more doboshes!”

“Apparently the debris has caused a miscalculation! The gap is-”

With a flash of light, the gap closed.

The paladins stood in shock.

“Pidge…” Shiro whispered, his stomach quickly tying into knots.

“Coran what the hell!” Keith yelled, storming over to the palored man with fire in his eyes. “You said she had ten more doboshes! What happened?!”

Shiro put his arm out to stop him, Keith seething as he met his gaze.

“Keith, yelling isn’t going to fix this. We just- we need to wait for it to open back up. Coran?”

With a grim expression, Coran pulled up the numbers. “Accounting for the error in calculation, it should open up in half a varga.”

Half a varga. That wasn’t too long, Shiro assured himself. Pidge was smart. She could survive for a little over 40 minutes. She would come through the opening right away, and he could relax again. Until then, he would just have to keep his cool. Not panic. But what if-

“Will she be okay in there?” Hunk asked quietly, his hands wringing together in his lap as he seemed to be on the same train of thought as Shiro was.

“She should be fine as long as she has her suit.” Allura said calmly, already rationalizing the situation. “It should protect her from the cold for as long as she needs.”

“So we just wait...?” Lance said uncertainly.

“We wait.”

-

Half a varga on the dot, the gap reopened, and with bated breath, the paladins watched the monitor in search of the Green Lion’s energy signature.

Nothing came.

His heart began to descend into his stomach.

“Shiro…?” Hunk whispered, fiddling with the coms as if he could will her to appear.

Shiro tried to hide the panic in his eyes. “Lance, do you think Red could make it a few minutes in that environment to retrieve her?”

“We can do it. I’m sure we can.” Lance said determinedly as he jumped from his chair and headed towards the hangar.

“Be careful, Lance.” Allura said as he stepped into the chute. “We don’t need another paladin stuck down there.”

With a nod, Lance was off.

No one moved from their spots, staring at the screen as Lance disappeared into the planet’s atmosphere. With bated breath, Shiro stood at attention, the thought of losing Lance as well as Pidge too real in his mind.

After a few doboshes, a distorted communication came through.

“-Elp! Please- I do-”

“What?! Lance, what’s happening?!” Shiro shouted, everyone on their feets as the communication became more clear.

“Her suit! Her suit isn’t functioning!”

Everyone paled.

“Shiro she’s blue! And wet! She won’t answer me! Please- I don’t know what to do! Pidge- Please, Pidge!”

“Lance, is she shivering?” Shiro called frantically, his composure cracking at the sound of Lance’s panicked breathing.

“No! She’s completely still!”

A pit settled into his stomach.

“How’s her pulse? What do her eyes look like?” He called again, recalling every bit of knowledge about the onset of hypothermia.

“It- It’s fast! Really fast! And her pupils are blown out, and-and they won’t follow anything! Shiro, please! She’s barely breathing!”

Hunk was sobbing at this point, and Keith was frozen in place, but Shiro knew he had to take action. He quickly turned around to face his team.

“She’s hypothermic. Hunk- go turn the temperature up. The equivalent of 90 degrees. Keith, go get clothes, blankets, anything warm. Allura, warm up some water packs and bring them to the infirmary. Coran, make sure the infirmary is equipped to check her vitals, and warm up an IV bag with the fluid Pidge says works like Saline.”

“Does she need a pod?” Coran asked quickly, heading towards the door with determination.

“No, the pods are cold. She needs warmth, and we need to do it gradually to keep her from going into more shock. Lance, get anything wet off of her and use the emergency blanket in the cockpit to keep her warm. I’ll meet you in Red’s hangar.”

With a nod, he ran towards the bridge doors, his heart hammering in his chest.

-

The screen went black, and Lance quickly began removing Pidge’s armor. Survival was more important than modesty at this point as he tore through pidge’s undersuit and wet undergarments. He quickly wrapped her limp body in the blanket, cursing as it was too short to cover her legs and feet. He quickly maneuvered out of his armor to press his chest against her, his hands coming to wrap around her feet. Tears were streaming down his face as he realized the ends of her toes were a deep purple along with her fingertips and the tops of her ears. Red had turned up the heat in the cockpit, and Lance began to pray in his native language, begging any god that would hear him to let her pull through. 

Pidge was so small in his arms, he thought. She was so small and fragile and he was stupid to let her out of his sights for even a tick. She was the closest thing he had to a little sister up here and he was losing her- losing a member of his familia. He was sobbing into her frozen locks as he began to rock her back and forth, the prayers dying into a mantra: “Por favor… Let her live… Por Favor…”

-

Red sped into the hangar with Green in her mouth, both of them dropping unceremoniously as the hatch opened and Lance sped out, Pidge’s limp and frozen body pressed tightly to his chest as Shiro ran up to meet them. Hunk was following close behind him, Keith at his side as they brought up an assortment of clothes and blankets, but all the yellow paladin could focus on was the mess in front of him. Seeing Lance’s disheveled form as Pidge’s frostbitten feet dangled from his arms quickened their pace, The four of them quickly tearing off the blanket and throwing on various layers of socks and gloves and what seemed to be the equivalent of wool clothing from Allura’s closet onto Pidge’s body, flinching at the icy temperature of her skin as they placed their palms on any exposed skin they could find.

“Pidge- Pidge can you hear me?” Shiro asked franitcally as he picked her up and began racing to the med bay.

There was no response.

Hunk heard Keith curse, and he was sobbing uncontrollably as they reached the med bay.

This was Pidge. His Pidge. She was supposed to be yelling at him for messing with her equipment, stealing bites of his culinary creations off of the pan as they chatted about an experiment they could work on together. 

Not this.

Anything but this.

The bundle in Shiro’s arms remained stoic as he lowered her onto a table covered in a heated blanket, Allura quickly bringing heated water packs up against her neck, armpits, and pelvis, along with any other creases she could fit them. The rest of the team huddled around, tears in their eyes as Pidge refused to stir.

“Shiro-”

“Hunk, put your hands on her face. Coran, check her temperature.”

The two did as they were told, tears dripping off of Hunk’s face onto Pidge’s forehead as he cradled her cheeks in his hands. They were so cold, and all Hunk could think of was how she looked dead.

“85 degrees farenheit according to your Earth calculations… That seems to be far below normal.”

“Yes, she’s extremely hypothermic.” Shiro said flatly, his hands traveling across the cocoon Pidge was wrapped in as if touching her would bring her back.

“I- Is she…” Lance said, tears streaming down his face.

“Not yet. As long as we can keep her from going into cardiac arrest she should be okay.” Hunk blessed the stars that Shiro was here. The emergency medical training students received the last year at the Garrison had an extensive course on how to help a hypothermic person, and since Shiro graduated with perfect scores, he was sure he knew what he was doing. Allura brought some sort of altean hairdryer and began running her fingers through Pidge’s icy locks.

“Lance, did you see anything down there that might give us a clue what happened?”

Lance nodded quickly, sniffling as he wiped the tears from his cheeks.

“Green wasn’t functioning. I think she might have crash landed. Pidge must have gotten out though, because she wasn’t in the cockpit. There was a crack in her helmet, and there was a hole in the ice over some sort of ocean. She must have fell in trying to check her surroundings, and the water must have gotten into her suit through the crack and made it malfunction.”

Hunk nodded at what seemed to be solid observations, grateful that Lance was smarter than most people gave him credit for, when he heard Pidge groan.

Everyone dug closer into her side, calling her name in distress. Coran brought a light to her eyes, and was relieved when her large pupils followed it from side to side.

“She’s responding.” Shiro sighed with relief, still not letting go of his grip on the bundle of blankets she was wrapped in. “Pidge- Pidge can you hear me?”

Her head lolled to the side to look him in the eyes, her body beginning to shiver in the bundle of warmth.

“Body temperature rising to 89 degrees. Her heart rate is returning to normal.” Coran said softly, his composure returning at the sight of color returning to Pidge’s ears.

“M-M-Matt…” Pidge whispered softly, her breaths becoming deeper despite the clattering of her teeth.

“Allura, open a wormhole to Matt’s location. Let him know what’s happened.”

Allura nodded, handing Hunk the hairdryer as she rushed out of the room. He dutifully began running his fingers across her scalp, a stuttering breath coming out of his chest as she seemed to dig into his hand.

“You’re going to be okay, Pidge… I promise…”  
-

Allura quickly approached the bridge, bringing up communications with Matt’s squadron as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She couldn’t let members of the coalition see her like this- sick with worry and guilt. She should have told Pidge not to go. That it was too dangerous to go without communications. She could have pulled rank- This was her castle, after all- but she hated to douse Pidge’s curiosity. It was part of what made the girl who she was. If Pidge found a path she wanted to go down, who was she to stop her? It was what made her perfect for the Green Lion.

She was perfect for the Green Lion, Allura thought to herself as the communication began ringing through. She was going to get better and be back in her lion in no time.

“H-Hey Allura!” Matt beamed through the screen, his cheeks tinted red. She had to admit, Matt was endearing in his admiration for her, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

“Matt, she’s alive I just want you to know that first.”

The boys face dropped instantly, and the fear she saw in his eyes made her heart break.

“What happened” he whispered. “Where is she- what happened?!”

“We are wormholing to you right now. She is hypothermic, but Shiro seems to think she is getting better.”

“What’s her temperature- Allura what happened?”

“89 degrees was the last Coran reported.” She heard Matt cuss as tears began streaming down his face. It was almost as bad as seeing Pidge cry. “She seems to have fell into water in an ice planet and was stranded there for about half a varga. We couldn’t get to her, Matt- I’m so sorry.”

“I-It’s okay Allura… Just bring her to me… Please.”

Allura nodded as she brought up the stands to begin the wormhole jump, honing in on Matt’s coordinates.

-

Commander Olia gave Matt a somber look of acknowledgement as he raced towards the landing dock, his heart pounding in his ears as he scanned the skies for the castle.

Pidge was hurt. She was hurt and in space and he wasn’t there.

It was his worst nightmare come true.

If his dad were here, he would be telling him to stay calm- that Allura said she was stable and that he didn’t need to panic- but his dad wasn’t here, so he was going to panic to his heart’s content. He just wasn’t as level headed as him.

As the castle’s shadow appeared in the clouds, he held his breath. He needed to calm down- at least a little. If he went in there panicking, he might scare Pidge even more than she already was- and despite not showing it, he was sure Pidge must be scared right now.

He tried to swallow the lump in his throat as the castle landed, rushing towards the platform that was lowering to the ground. Allura motioned to him, her eyes red and puffy. It made his heart hurt to see someone so kind and beautiful in pain. She gave him a soft smile as they ascended, a whisper of “She’s okay” on her lips.

His legs couldn’t move fast enough as he raced to the infirmary, but they came skidding to a halt when the doors opened.

There lay Pidge- his Pidge- on a table, wrapped in blankets and hats and covered in water bottles, shivering in her small frame with blue lips and a listless gaze.

He couldn’t help the sob that slipped through his lips as tears began to stream down his face.

“Matt, she’s asking for you.” Shiro said softly, his eyes full of empathy as Matt snapped back into reality. His breath stuttered as he rushed to her side, brushing through her hair as her eyes, wide and unfocused, latched onto him.

“M-Matt.”

He started sobbing harder.

“Hey Pidge…”

Shiro brought him a chair, Matt mouthing a soft ‘thanks’ as he scooted up next to Pidge’s head.

“D-don..t… c-cry...” She whispered, her eyelids drooping as she blinked slowly. Matt quickly wiped his cheeks before plastering a big grin on his cheeks.

“It’s okay. I’m just not used to seeing you like this is all.”

She nodded at that, shifting in her cocoon as if she was trying to get her hands out. He placed a hand on top of her, squeezing at what he assumed was her wrist.

“Don’t move, Pidgeon. You need to stay in there and get warm.”

She frowned at him. “D-don’t c-c-call me th-that.”

Matt let out a snort.

“Oh so you’re finally going to let me call you Pidge, but Pidgeon is still off-limits?”

She made an affirmative grunt as she tried to focus her eyes on him.

“Alright, that’s fair.” He said softly, looking to Coran as he ran some sort of thermometer over her forehead.

“92 degrees.” He said calmly. “Are you starting to feel better, Number 5?”

“T-Tired…” She said under her breath, and Matt and Shiro both startled at this.

“Pidge, you can’t fall asleep.” Shiro said with alarm, his hand pressing on her blankets. “If you fall asleep, you might not wake up. Once we get you to about 96 degrees, then you can sleep.”

“No…” She said drowsily, and Matt pressed both hands to her cheeks.

“Hey, you can do it. Just listen to me and think warm thoughts, okay?”

Her eyes traveled to him again, and he racked his brain for something to help her stay awake.

“Ok, let’s think about warm things.” He said after a moment, his hands rubbing at her hairline and working back towards the crown of her head. She leaned into the touch and blearily stared up at him.

“Remember when… Oh! I got it! Remember when we went to the beach a few summers ago for spring break? You were making that sand castle?”

Pidge nodded.

“Th-The o-other kids… Th-They kn-kn-knocked it d-down…” She said, a frown on her face.

“Yeah, and I got so mad at them! I ran them off and we had to start from scratch, but this time we put rocks all around it so people wouldn’t come near it. We both got horrible sunburns because we refused to go back and put on sunscreen.”

“W-We buried Dad.” She said with a chuckle, obviously pushing herself to talk.

“We did! He said he was the sand man! And chased us around once he got up and threw you in the water!”

Pidge let out a chuckle at that, and Matt’s spirits soared.

“Yeah, and what about that time we had movie night when Mom and Dad went out on a date? We were supposed to go to bed at 10 but we stayed up until 3 watching the Space Battle marathon on the science fiction channel.”

“W-we had… Hot C-Cocoa.”

“And a blanket fort!” He reminded her. “We sat in there eating all kinds of candy and junk food after that and you had such a sugar rush that you were vibrating! Then you crashed so hard I couldn’t even wake you up to get you into bed.”

“I was f-faking. I just didn’t want to g-get up.” Pidge said with a smirk.

“What?!” Matt cried, pinching her cheeks as she let out a snort. “That’s so mean, Katie! We got caught because you wouldn’t let me clean up the fort!”

A cheeky grin stretched across her lips, the color coming back to them after talking. Matt spared Coran a glance. The altean nodded and ran her temperature once again, the relief on his face palpable. 

“She’s at 96 degrees.”

Everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief.

“Is it weird that I’m g-getting hot?” Pidge asked after a moment. Matt chuckled.

“No, you are under a lot of blankets. Let’s sit you up, eh?” He moved to unbundle her, slowly sitting her up when she began to cough. When it didn’t stop, he began rubbing her back as he looked to Shiro in alarm.

“Coran, scan. Now.” Shiro said as her coughing finally died down, inspecting Pidge as she started to catch her breath.

“She seems to have some water trapped in her lungs.” Coran said with a frown. “Did you inhale any water?”

Pidge nodded. “I fell in the lake, and my helmet was cracked, and I accidentally breathed some in. I got a- Oh! The sample!” Pidge looked around. “I got a sample of the ground and the water, just in case.”  
Matt smiled. Of course she did.

“I think it’s in Green. Is she-” Pidge asked, her words dying as a cough racked through her chest. 

“She’s fine. Just a little banged up.” Shiro assured her. “Right now we are worried about you. The water you were covered in seemed to be pretty dirty, and you must have inhaled a lot if you are still coughing.”

“It just kept sloshing in when I was trying to get out.” She said quietly.

“I’m worried you might get sick, Pidge.” Shiro said softly, pressing his hand to her face as if he could tell if she was getting worse. “I think it’s best if we go hide out somewhere until we can make sure Pidge is ready for action.”

“Shiro, I’m-” A deep cough shook through her, causing her to wheeze after a moment. “Fine…”

Matt chuckled. Pidge always refused to admit she was sick until she was in bad shape.

“Can’t we just stick her in the pod?” Hunk asked, not liking the idea of Pidge having any kind of respiratory problems, especially in space.

“Unfortunately, Number 2, the pod cannot heal bacterial infections. We will need to come up with some kind of medicine that is acceptable to your weak human bodies.”

Matt frowned at that. If she was going to have bacterial pneumonia, she was going to need to be treated with antibiotics, or it could be fatal. Chemistry was his strong suit though.

“I can help. I know a good deal about medicine and what not. If I can construct something like Penicillin, we should be okay.” Matt said as he squeezed Pidge’s leg, the girl not oblivious to what was going through Matt’s mind. “Plus, if Pidge is going to be sick, you are definitely going to want me around.”

Pidge jabbed him in the side, glaring at him as Coran told her not to move.

“What? What is wrong with Pidge being sick, other than the obvious?” Ketih asked.

“You’ll see.”

**Author's Note:**

> Second part coming soon! It was originally a one shot but it got too long!


End file.
